Fitness

Getting fit and staying that way doesn’t have to mean paying for a gym membership or buying equipment to build your own at home. You can easily lose fat and stay healthy just by doing several exercises. Of course, not just any exercise will do. The best exercises that can help get you in shape are those that target multiple muscle groups. This means that you get the most out of each and every minute you spend working out. But before you get started on what exercises you should choose for your workout, there are also several things you can do before and after your “regimen” in order to “supercharge” your workout’s effectiveness. What are they? Check them out below.

Tips on Boosting Workout Effectiveness:

Consume 200-400 mg of caffeine one or two hours before you exercise to increase fat-burning and boost your endurance.

Eat slowly digestible carbohydrates such as oatmeal and fruit before your workout. This also increases your endurance and helps you burn more fats.

Eat foods that are high in carbohydrates with a bit of protein within two hours after your workout to refuel your muscles and prevent them from breaking down.

Stretch after training to keep your muscles flexible.

Make sure you drink lots of water throughout the day, not just prior or during your workout.

So, are you ready to learn what fitness home workouts work best for staying fit and healthy?

Number 5

Jumping Jacks

Yes, you read it right. Jumping jacks are one of the best fitness home exercises. There’s a reason why it’s still being used by the United States Army when training their recruits. Doing jumping jacks is a great way to get your body to warm up before you do any strenuous exercise. It speeds up your heart rate and enables you to burn fat at a fast rate. As a strengthening exercise, jumping jacks is one of the few that makes use of all the large muscle groups. Aside from being a total body workout, this exercise is quite simple to do, even for beginners. And if you want to up the difficulty level, there are numerous variations that can provide you with a more intense muscle-building workout.

How to Do It

Start with your arms to your sides and your feet together. Then, jump up and land with your arms raised over your head and your legs spread around 2-3 feet apart. Jump up again and land with your arms at your sides and your feet together (exactly like your starting position). This is one complete repetition. Do 1 set of 10 repetitions. If you feel 1 set of 10 reps is not enough, you can do 2 sets of 10 reps instead.

Are you ready for a higher degree of difficulty in your workout?

Number 4

Crunch

We all want those abs to look perfectly even though it is not always summer time and we do not have to wear a swimsuit each day. The mere fact that this allows us to wear slim fit clothes is a good enough reason to choose to do some home crunches from time to time.

To have effect you need to make sure you do them properly. After a few times you will have no problem in doing them.

How to Do It

Take a mat and lie on your back with your knees bent. Put your hands behind your head and squeeze your shoulders. Make sure you do not arch your lower back.

Now you have to go up – exhale, contract your abdominal and slowly bend to your thighs. Make sure your neck is relaxed and the chin tucked towards the neck. The right position will have your feet and your lower back on the mat at all times. Bend until your upper back is fully lifted and then hold this position for some seconds.

Going down – inhale and slowly go back to the lying position without taking your feet or lower back from the mat. During this exercise, it is important that the neck and the shoulders stay relaxed in order to achieve good results.

Number 3

Front plank

Going forwards, we have to fix those abs of yours and a front plank exercise may just be the answer to this. It will not only help the abs but also the back, relieving the pain that working at the office for hours can give you in time.

How to Do It

The starting position is lying on a mat on your stomach. Extend the legs and pull your toes towards the shins. Keep your core and abdominal muscles contracted during this exercise.

Go up by lifting the body up from the mat. Do not arch your lower back or bend the knees. Hold this position for 5 seconds. Then go down lowering the body back to the mat. Keep your back straight. Make sure you do this very slowly as you may feel some pain especially in your back area.

Number 2

Hip Adduction

This exercise is mainly destined for women and those that have a little extra on their interior hips they want to get rid of.

It is not that hard to make, it does not take much time and repeating it, it will have very good effects on the upper inner part of your legs.

How to Do It

Lie on one of your sides, depending the one that you want to start your workout with. The legs should be well extended and the feet held together. The lower arm should go under your head for support while the other will stay on your hip.

When raising the lower leg off the mat exhale and do not hurry. Make sure your hips remain vertical to the floor and you have control over the raised leg and do not move it or rotate it in the air. Leave it for a few seconds and then gently go down inhaling, so that you get to your initial position.

Repeat this for 20 times, then turn around, and do the same with the other leg, laying on your other side.

Number 1

Pelvic tilts

Pelvic tilts are exercises that mainly focus on your ab area, especially on the side abs one. The starting position for this is lying down.

How to Do it

Lie down on a mat with the knees bent. Extend both arms to the side and the palms facing the ceiling. Contract the abdominal muscles until your low back is flat on the floor. Hold this position for a while. Then, come back, inhale and relax the abdominal muscles while contracting your lower back ones. Try not to raise the hips from the mat. Hold this position for a while and then come back to the initial position.